‘Mind-blowing’ mistake derails Year 12 exams

Thousands of students sitting end of high school exams had already been given virtually identical questions in sample tests, in a bungle described by one principal as “mind-blowing”.

Victorian students sitting exams in the subjects Business Management, Specialist Maths and Legal Studies were given access to cheat sheets that contained questions and case studies almost the same as those they encountered in their final test papers, an investigation by The Herald Sun found.

The newspaper described it as “a catastrophic blunder by bureaucrats”, and reported that students could also find possible cheat sheets for five exams that have not yet been held: Global Politics, Systems Engineering, Food Studies, Art Making and Exhibiting VET Integrated Technologies.

This included a question about an invented man called Luke charged with contept of court for carrying out research as a juror.

Students had already been presented with a question about a man called ‘Leo’ in exactly the same position.

One principal told the paper the “integrity of the exam process” was “in doubt” as a result of the blunder.

The problem, here, involves instruction booklets from the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA).

Students discovered they could highlight blank spaces on some of the booklets’ pages which, when pasted into a Microsoft Word document, would reveal hidden questions.

“Just for fun I tried highlighting the word ‘sample’ but I ended up highlighting words that weren’t there. So I copied and pasted them, and there were essay prompts that I had never seen before,” one person said on Reddit, according to The Herald Sun.

Once this came to light, the VCAA issued new booklets that didn’t include the “hidden” questions, and it changed the exam in question to remove the material the Reddit poster had highlighted.

“A student having prior knowledge that a question of this type was on the exam would obviously be advantaged over a student who did not know,” one VCE teacher, John Kermond, told The Herald Sun.

Some case studies in both the Business Management and Legal Studies booklets were essentially identical to those in the final exams.

The VCAA has responded to the controversy by insisting it’s ensured exam questions are now different to the sample questions included in the booklets.

Teachers don’t all agree.

“If a school did this they would fail a VCE audit and be told to change their practices,” one teacher told the newspaper.

“Students who have bent over backwards to do their best now find their peers may have had access to substantial material in the final exam.

“It is mind-blowing. How is this even possible?”

“They did it and then they covered it up,” said another teacher.

“The only changes they made were to the names in the case studies, which gave the kids who saw this a massive advantage.

The Victorian opposition has blamed the government for the blunder.

“Labor’s gross incompetence has once again left students disadvantaged and compromised the integrity of VCE examinations,” said Jess Wilson, the shadow education minister.

“For students, VCE is stressful enough without concerns of exam papers containing errors, being leaked, incorrectly distributed or otherwise compromised.

“The VCAA must be subjected to an urgent, independent investigation to restore confidence in this authority.”

VCTA Executive Director Geoffrey O’Neill and Executive Officer Michelle Mitchell said, in a statement to members, that the association was informed about the similarity between hidden content and the actual 2024 VCE exam papers.

“The VCTA values our productive and longstanding working relationship with the VCAA and felt it was our responsibility to bring these concerns to them to maintain the integrity of VCE assessments and fairness for our 3400+ members and their students,” the statement said.

“Given the sensitive nature of this incident, the VCTA wrote a letter to the VCAA CEO earlier this week. In it, we outlined our concerns and requested a thorough investigation and appropriate actions to uphold fairness and integrity in the VCE assessment process.

“The letter specifically addressed concerns raised by our members regarding any unfair advantage (perceived or actual) for students who accessed the hidden content.”